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Sunday, 25 November 2012

What a Load of Rubbish.

In my humble opinion, rubbish never used to be a problem.

Paper was burned, vegetable matter composted, glass usually recycled, and assorted plastic and tin cans left outside for the dustmen (I'm talking about back in the UK).

Yet Town Hall moguls see things differently. Now they want everything sorted into materials, colours, weights, sizes, and probably cleanliness as well; hence the THREE charming Wheelie-bins permanently parked outside each cottage above.

A few years back, the dustman would have gone happily along (maybe twice a week), picking up a single black plastic bag by each front door. Now, for each house, he has to wheel THREE large ungainly plastic bins to a distant lorry, attach them to some lifting device, empty them, and return them to their correct home. Have the 'time and motion' boys not done any research on this, I wonder?

I find it all very silly, very ugly, and usually very smelly.

Oh, and I forgot to mention. If you put a cabbage leaf in the blue bin, or a Coke bottle in the green one, you receive an instant ten year jail sentence, and a £200,000 fine. And what happens to the different coloured bins? They all get emptied into the same lorry, of course!

14 comments:

We have had the same thing here for years. However, I am fortunate enough to be able to put my food scraps and garden refuge in a compost heap. That leaves me with plastic, newspapers, cans and bottles to recycle. I try to keep it to a minimum, but I am happy to have whatever I have of this nature be recycled. This is just the life we live today and, unfortunately, we are producing so much toxic chemical garbage, that we must do everything we can to keep these substances from being deposited back into our groundwater. What bothers me the most is that these recycle bins are made of plastic which is large part of the problem.

Remember the days when a tin bin was discreetly hidden in the BACK garden, and the bin-man went around the back, whistling, and collected it?

Wheelie bins are monstrosities and as ugly as a town councillor's backside. Some places in England have fines as high as £25,000 for rubbish or recycling or litter offences! If they ever tried that on me they could chase me and see how far they got.

The ONLY thing they won't take around here are the only two things we used to recyle then - tin foil and glass! The whole system is cretinous.

There’s a clue in the name dustbin, as that’s virtually all that went into it in those days, until things were changed for ‘the better’. But I’m sure the lunatics know what they are doing on their six figure salaries !

And there I was, determined to be a little less cynical today, until I read your post

Hihi, very entertaining post.;) It was also tried in Denmark and here the Danes quickly figured out that the trash was mixed anyways so here we only recycle paper at our front door. The rest such as plastic, aluminium and glass we store and dispose of ourselves at the variety of recycle centres.;)In Switzerland they apparently have stopped having dustbins at their front doors all together - and no dustmen either - now my sister drives her trash every day to disposal centres. Have a great Sunday,xoxo

You're absolutely right, wheelies bins are an eyesore.We are lucky to have enough space at the front of our house to keep them hidden in a fenced compound but most people just park them by their front door.I blame the supermarkets. In life before Tesco we bought our groceries and veg etc at the local shop and they were weighed and put in a paper bag, producing a lot less rubbish.

We've got the same bins..only we have to pull them down to the curb on garbage day for the specially designed truck to pck them up. It has two hoppers, one for green and one for either recyclables or trash which we put out on alternate weeks. I'm reserving judgement on how well it works as this is only our third week to use the system. I imagine winter is going to make things difficult. It used to be a truck would come along and pick up our bags...now these bins are lying all over the curbs until people come home from work and wheel them back to their houses.

Here in New Zealand we put our paper out in a bag or box, our general rubbish goes either in a purchased rubbish bag or, in my case, in a small wheelie bin in which I can also put green waste. Our recyclables go in a council provided (plastic) box.

Our new neighbours only put out recyclables and it appears as though they burn the rest in their woodburner. I think there is polystyrene in the mix as it smells quite toxic.

We take our stuff to the dump here and recycle all we can (glass, metal, paper, cardboard, plastics numbered 1-7). They also accept scrap metal, large plastic pieces for recycling (lots of kids' toys or large plastic trash cans in that pile) and have a place where one can dump ashes (lots of woodstoves in use here). What we can't recycle does get thrown out, but many times, i'll arrive with four times the amount of things to recycle.

Yummy Scallops..mmm!
-
We went with friends to the Scallop festival in Whitianga; a charming
seaside town in the Coromandal District.
Had a great time...5000 people, lots of wine...

3 years ago

Optimistic Cro!

The difference between an optimist and a pessimist, is that the optimist enjoys himself whilst waiting for the inevitable! I AM that optimist!

This is a daily, optimistic, 'photos and comments' blog. I make no judgements (only occasionally), just notes. If you wish to comment in any way at all, please feel free. Everything and everyone is very welcome.

About Me

I was born just south of London, but for the past 45 years I've lived in S W France. I am a painter by profession, and writer by desire. Lady Magnon and I live in an ancient cottage, in a tiny village, in perfectly tranquil countryside. We have a vegetable garden called 'Haddock's' (this may crop up from time to time), a Border Collie/Black Lab' cross called Bok, a cat called Freddie, plenty of fruit trees, and a view that takes the breath away. I try to treat our planet with respect, and encourage others to do likewise (without preaching).
Contentment is a glass of red, a plate of charcuterie, and a slice of good country bread. Perfect!